A married woman was allegedly forced to breast-feed a youth, with whom she had eloped, by a tribal panchayat in Alirajpur district, which wanted to teach her a lesson, police said.
Four persons were today arrested in this regard. "They were arrested for allegedly torturing a 25-year-old married woman and her 21-year-old boyfriend on December 31, on the directives of a community panchayat. The duo belong to the Bhil tribe," Alirajpur District Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Jha told PTI.
The incident took place in Bayda village of the district, he said.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman eloped with her boyfriend, leaving her husband and three children about two months ago and escaped to Gujarat, after which the villagers were enraged.
In order to teach them a lesson, they were caught in Gujarat and brought back to the village after which they were beaten black and blue and later produced before a tribal Bhil panchayat, the SP said.
On the directives of the panchayat, the woman's hair were cut haphazardly while her lover was tonsured, the SP said.
The panchayat then ordered the woman to breast-feed the man with whom she eloped and consider him as her son in future, he said.
Jha said that police had booked ten persons in this regard and so far arrested four among them. Search is on to trace the remaining accused.
The SP said that nearly 40 people were involved in the crime and efforts are on to identify them.
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